DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Any Lightroom Experts?
Pages:  
Showing posts 26 - 33 of 33, (reverse)
AuthorThread
 05/25/2011 02:26:30 PM · #26
Just a heads-up on file compare... if you don't run a binary compare, the file header may not be included and differences may not be apparent. I'm not sure if BeyondCompare does a binary compare or not. There are utilities that will show the hexadecimal dumps side by side with differences flagged. I haven't used such an animal in many years, so I don't really have any good recommendations.
 05/25/2011 03:15:36 PM · #27
Originally posted by bvy:
Thanks for that tip, Colette. I'll investigate further. If files are the same, I might run ProcMon against SPP to see just what it's writing to.


Brian, I did some more research into this, specifically pertaining to the Sigma DP2 and file format. Apparently Sigma's DP2 DOES NOT use a sidecar file...xmp or otherwise. It seems that ALL the RAW data is contained in the .X3F files that you have.

I found one link to a forum that implies that this is a known issue when using the Sigma Photo Pro software. In the thread people were complaining that once they set the WB in SPP to Black and White it was basically locked there and would not display the color data when viewed in programs like Lightroom. It looks to be a bug somewhere on Sigma's part...software wise. So know you at least know that searching for a sidecar file will not be possible, and that your camera and software are fine. I would definitely make sure you are using the latest version of SPP with full updates to see if they resolved the issue. The thread was from 2010...sometime. So do any updates and try again. If it still does the same thing they haven't fixed it yet. It seems to only apply to files where the Black and White WB was set in SPP.

Here is the link to the Adobe forum talking about your same issue.

Do you need to use the Sigma Photo Pro software or can you just bypass that and use Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop?

I hope this helps you out some more....

Dave

05/25/2011 04:30:46 PM · #28
Originally posted by kirbic:
Just a heads-up on file compare... if you don't run a binary compare, the file header may not be included and differences may not be apparent. I'm not sure if BeyondCompare does a binary compare or not. There are utilities that will show the hexadecimal dumps side by side with differences flagged. I haven't used such an animal in many years, so I don't really have any good recommendations.


Yes it does. More than that, it will show the codes as the characters they represent so you can actually read what you are comparing. The side by side compare is really good as it allows you to re-align if things are out of whack to start with in the compare windows.

Message edited by author 2011-05-25 16:32:48.
 05/25/2011 04:46:48 PM · #29
Originally posted by cpanaioti:
Originally posted by kirbic:
Just a heads-up on file compare... if you don't run a binary compare, the file header may not be included and differences may not be apparent. I'm not sure if BeyondCompare does a binary compare or not. There are utilities that will show the hexadecimal dumps side by side with differences flagged. I haven't used such an animal in many years, so I don't really have any good recommendations.


Yes it does. More than that, it will show the codes as the characters they represent so you can actually read what you are comparing. The side by side compare is really good as it allows you to re-align if things are out of whack to start with in the compare windows.


Fabulous... sometimes this kind of brute force approach is the only way to gain insight!
 05/25/2011 04:59:27 PM · #30
It's starting to come together now. I haven't investigated further, but I think SPP actually is writing metadata to the read-only X3F file. How can it do this? Two things make me believe this.
1. Certain edits to the read-only X3F file seem to change the modified date anyway.
2. I back up a lot of these files to DVD, and I just had this recollection: If I try to open an X3F file directly from a disk, SPP seems to hang -- or only go as far as displaying the file with very limited editing options.

Dave, admittedly I am using an older version of SPP 3.5.2. I won't upgrade however, because the 4.x versions have compulsory noise reduction on images taken at ISO400 or greater -- in other words, you can't produce a TIFF file from the RAW file without having some noise reduction applied. I don't like not having that option.

And now we've come full circle. This is the main reason I'm investigating Lightroom and other tools.
 05/25/2011 05:03:31 PM · #31
Originally posted by kirbic:
Originally posted by cpanaioti:
Originally posted by kirbic:
Just a heads-up on file compare... if you don't run a binary compare, the file header may not be included and differences may not be apparent. I'm not sure if BeyondCompare does a binary compare or not. There are utilities that will show the hexadecimal dumps side by side with differences flagged. I haven't used such an animal in many years, so I don't really have any good recommendations.


Yes it does. More than that, it will show the codes as the characters they represent so you can actually read what you are comparing. The side by side compare is really good as it allows you to re-align if things are out of whack to start with in the compare windows.


Fabulous... sometimes this kind of brute force approach is the only way to gain insight!


... and dig into zip files to compare the individual files etc. etc. etc.

I've primarily used it at work to compare compiled code and deployment packages but it works just as well on other file types. I've used it at home to quickly compare disk contents when I'm rearranging and doing disk cleanup.
 05/25/2011 05:34:23 PM · #32
Originally posted by bvy:
It's starting to come together now. I haven't investigated further, but I think SPP actually is writing metadata to the read-only X3F file. How can it do this? Two things make me believe this.
1. Certain edits to the read-only X3F file seem to change the modified date anyway.
2. I back up a lot of these files to DVD, and I just had this recollection: If I try to open an X3F file directly from a disk, SPP seems to hang -- or only go as far as displaying the file with very limited editing options.


That's what I thought was happening... the program that Colette pointed to sounds like the cool tool to confirm this!
It's possible if the only part of the file that's being touched is the header information. That's not considered part of the file's data, and thus can be changed despite a "read-only" flag. The software hang you run into when loading a *truly* read-only file (on non-writable media) seems to be a strong indicator that this is the case.
 05/25/2011 06:41:08 PM · #33
Originally posted by bvy:
It's starting to come together now. I haven't investigated further, but I think SPP actually is writing metadata to the read-only X3F file. How can it do this? Two things make me believe this.
1. Certain edits to the read-only X3F file seem to change the modified date anyway.
2. I back up a lot of these files to DVD, and I just had this recollection: If I try to open an X3F file directly from a disk, SPP seems to hang -- or only go as far as displaying the file with very limited editing options.

Dave, admittedly I am using an older version of SPP 3.5.2. I won't upgrade however, because the 4.x versions have compulsory noise reduction on images taken at ISO400 or greater -- in other words, you can't produce a TIFF file from the RAW file without having some noise reduction applied. I don't like not having that option.

And now we've come full circle. This is the main reason I'm investigating Lightroom and other tools.


Can't say I blame you regarding the noise reduction. I want to have complete control over how noise reduction is applied, and when and where. When I process my RAW files I do not apply noise reduction in LR or ACR. I bring it into Photoshop and use my Topaz DeNoise plug in if needed. There are also times where I mask the image and only apply it to certain areas that might need it such as the sky and dark shadows etc. DeNoise does a pretty nice job of maintaining or reintroducing details during the process, but there are just some areas of some photos where I don't want it applied.

I do find it odd that SPP won't allow you to turn it off or apply it in certain amounts. Canon revamped their DPP software a few months ago, and I do like the new way they are handling noise...giving you a choice and since it's the manufacturer software it will preset the amount based on the camera, ISO and other settings....nice.
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 08/22/2025 04:57:14 AM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 08/22/2025 04:57:14 AM EDT.